Broken in the Cold
by erza's jelly beans
Summary: Maybe she'd be happier (MuffinClan Challenge)


She was broken.

It was possible to tell that much. The way she hid in the shadows of camp, the way she always walked with her head low. When he heard her crying herself to sleep.

He hurt. Leafpaw's pain consumed his heart more than anyone else. Just looking at her would make him feel guilty. Blizzardpaw didn't want to be apart of the group that bullied her...but he had no choice.

Leafpaw was laying in a corner right now. Dozing softly in the morning snow. She looked so sweet, innocent. She truly was, but day after day, a tiny part of her shattered. Blizzardpaw could do nothing but watch, as Snowpaw and her friends surrounded the poor she-cat, taunting and scarring her.

Blizzardpaw sighed. He would like to help her...but he couldn't defy his sister, and the soft hold she had on him.

_You're my brother. You are always on my side._

And, sad enough, he had agreed. Now he couldn't back out, though a little part of him broke as Leafpaw did.

Blizzardpaw watched as Snowpaw and her friends padded away, laughing. Leafpaw, however, was very different.

She was curled into a tight ball, shaking. Blizzardpaw looked away.

_How much more of this can I take?_

_._

_._

_._

Leafpaw was shaking. She was terrified. Sadly enough, that was a daily problem for her.

_You're just a stupid rogue's kit, _she had said, her cold blue eyes like the morning frost.

_Worthless. I doubt you could survive this leafbare._

As scary as those words are, they didn't scare her that much. Death was apart of life that everyone would eventually have to face. And with these passing days, death was something that she wasn't afraid of anymore. Leafpaw had been wondering if he life was worth living.

_There's no one left alive that cares for me...I'm worthless.._

_._

_._

_._

Blizzardpaw shivered. It had continued snowing, much harder now since yesterday. No one had been allowed to leave camp as of that morning.

Of course, that didn't work for Snowpaw.

He didn't find out what she'd been planning until too late.

.

.

.

"Go! Move faster you worthless she-cat," Snowpaw hissed, nipping Leafpaw's heels as they trudged through the snow. Snowpaw and her friends were right behind her, forcing her out of camp, and into the cold beyond.

Leafpaw sped up, though she was shivering, the chill freezing her to the bone. The snow was deep, reaching up to her stomach. She felt like passing out.

The she-cat continued to toil on into the snow, stopping when she reached the shore. The young she-cat sighed, shaking, as she saw that Snowpaw and her friends were gone.

_Return to camp and I will end you._

She had never been happy, being an orphaned kit, growing up with Snowpaw. Leafpaw couldn't think of a time when she'd ever been truly, happy.

_Is it worth it? To go on if I don't love my life?_

Lately, she had been thinking. She wasn't happy. Never was. Maybe it was time to shut out the lights..

.

.

.

Blizzardpaw rushed through the trees. He hadn't seen Leafpaw all morning and knew something was terribly wrong. Snowpaw had returned to camp, looking smug along with her _stupid _friends. He followed the scent trail to the shore, but Leafpaw was nowhere to be seen.

_Where is she?_

_._

_._

_._

Leafpaw padded through the snow, panting. She'd seen them over here before when she was helping Birdpaw look for herbs. _Where are they?_

She sighed, as soon enough, her eyes landed upon the berries, red sparkling through the frosted layer surrounding them.

The young she-cat picked several, laying them out on a leaf. She stared down at the red berries.

_Now or never._

_._

_._

_._

Blizzardpaw followed her scent back into the trees, weaving through the undergrowth. _Had she tried to go back?_

He emerged through a clump of ferns, finally seeing Leafpaw. But his heart dropped into his stomach as he saw what she was doing.

_No!_

_._

_._

_._

Leafpaw sat there, when she felt an agonizing pain in her stomach. Convulsing, the she-cat let out a pained scream, feeling as if she was being ripped to pieces from the inside. She fell over, into the snow, foam pooling out of her mouth mixed with blood.

She could feel herself slipping away. Maybe she'd be happier. Time slowed, and all she heard was a constant ringing in the back of her ears. Her eyes found a distraught Blizzardpaw before they closed, his facade shattering into a million pieces before her.

_I'm sorry, Blizzardpaw_


End file.
